


Prove it with one hand behind your back

by Datawyrms (Verl)



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: as a treat, because that is a sentence i wrote, because this where where i dump most of them, come for the bonding and stay for the dragon ghost pope, danny can have some family bonding, i hope you like random worldbuilding headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24279649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verl/pseuds/Datawyrms
Summary: Jack simply wants to help his son, so some encouragement is in order. Science is fun, kiddo just needs something he's interested in, is all.He's not wrong, but Danny can't exactly explain why he's so motivated by his hypothesis...Dannymay Prompt Science for Chp1, Gloves for Chp2 ??? onwards
Comments: 11
Kudos: 119





	1. Chapter 1

At first they had tried not to worry too much. Danny was a teenager now, of course he would be spending more time with his friends and figuring out what kind of adult he wanted to be. Grade slipping was just a part of the process. He’d slip, realize he did need to apply himself if he wanted to reach his goals and then get them back up. Jazz had done something similar! Well, more she got a paper back with a B instead of an A which cemented her studies as her first priority ever since.

Yet Danny was still slipping. Jack could understand if his son had found some new passion or activity he wanted to chase more, but the boy had shown no real interest in...anything, really. He still liked space, still seemed to be interested whenever the topic came up but had simply stopped putting in the work that would be needed if he wanted to continue his studies.

So there had been talks about his grades, punishments for sneaking around, but it felt like they couldn’t do enough for their son. Maddie was of the opinion that Danny had to re-find the passion on his own, and forcing him would just make him resentful, and she was probably right. What if some ectoplasmic scum had stolen all of Danny’s excitement and energy? Then they could help!

They lived right near the portal, it was totally possible!

He just didn’t want to watch his son lose any chance of reaching his old dreams without doing something.

“Hey Danno!” The boy flinched when he clapped him on the back, a reaction Jack tried to ignore. “How about you help your old man with some science in the lab today?”

Danny wouldn’t meet his eyes as he grumbled out the often repeated phrase “Dad, I have homework”.

“Sure you do! We all know it isn’t going to get done, so come do something fun instead of staring at the wall, okay?”

His son looked baffled that he’d called him out like that. “I’m totally trying to do it! It’s just hard, I’m not smart like you guys-”

“Nonsense! I’ll prove it to you, come on.” Jack set off towards the lab, hearing the teenager groan. This would be good for him, maybe rekindle the spark he used to have. Or maybe Danny was more like him and just struggled a little if information wasn’t provided in a visual way.

Or it totally was a ghost!

Danny did his best impression of a snail as he slouched into the lab, eyeing the set up table warily. More accurately he kept an eye on the tiny green mouse ghost that Jack had put there for them to observe. “Isn’t this more a mom thing? I don’t know anything about ghosts.”

“Nope! You know all those big beasties that actually talk and cause mayhem?”

Danny rolled his eyes and crossed his arms “No duh. The school is like ghost central.”

Jack nodded, gesturing to the chairs next to the table with paper and pen already laid out. “So your mother and I have noticed more of that type of beastie is showing up, so we’re going to try and make some hypotheses on why that can be. Sound fun, right?”

“No.” his answer was flat. The complete lack of curiosity was somewhat troubling, but Jack was no quitter.

“Ahh don’t be like that Danny! It’s an important part of the scientific method, and there’s no wrong answers.”

The boy let out another long sigh. “It’s kind of obvious it’s the ghost portal.”

“Okay, we’ll write that down as one possibility.” Jack nodded. “What part of the portal makes it easier for those bigger ghosts to get through?”

“Dad, it’s a giant hole in reality that doesn’t go away.”

“So you’re saying the fact it’s a stable consistent gateway is what is attracting the ghosts?” Jack prompted him again.

“Obviously?”

“So how can a portal attract ghosts if we’re working on the assumption that ghosts are not intelligent enough to pass that sort of information around?” he pointed a gloved hand at the mouse ghost, which was doing little more than wandering around in the glass box and occasionally floating.

“That you’re wrong and ghosts can be intelligent.” He said it so easily, but that wasn’t a huge surprise. Most of the kids were fond of the ghost that liked to play superhero.

“So if you put that together your hypothesis would be?”

“That there are more ghosts because ghosts are intelligent and share the location of the portal.” he muttered, tensing if preparing for something.

“Alright, so what kind of experiments can we do to prove that?”

Danny looked up suddenly at that, blinking. “Wait, aren’t you going to go on about how they’re all mindless monsters that you’re going to rip apart molecule by molecule?”

“Nope! We’re going to be scientists and let your hypothesis prove or disprove itself Danny. Think of it as practice for when you’re trying to train for NASA.”

A new energy seemed to fill his son at that, brow furrowing as if he was actually thinking hard about the question instead of just saying the first thing that came to mind. “Proof of society, things like language and rules and stories would prove it to you, right? Scientifically.”

“It would be a point in the possibility category, sure.”

Danny was scribbling things down actively now, not needing further prompting to keep on the problem. “And if I have reasons why ‘ghosts aren’t intelligent’ can be explained away or is too broad of a statement-”

“That would add to your hypothesis too! See, you’re a smart kid Danny.”

“You promise you’ll take it seriously? Really?” he was watching his father’s face, a weird sort of hope in his eyes.

“Of course! Fentons are scientists!” he paused with a small chuckle. “Just very busy scientists”.

“Well doing more of this and less of...that” Danny gestured to a half assembled weapon on a side table “Is more my speed, dad.”

Jack grinned. Sure the idea was a bit out there, but his son seemed genuinely excited. About ghosts! “Well son, let’s see what we can try to prove.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finding proof is harder than it looks.

“Uhhh, Danny?” Jazz called up the stairs, laundry basket under her arm.

“What? I’ll get my stuff when it’s dry!” Her brother yelled back down, apparently not interested in leaving his room so they could speak semi-normally.

“Normally it would be my duty as your sister to throw your wash on the floor. Were you aware your laundry is glowing?”

Her frazzled brother appeared at the stairs then, taking them two at a time. “Geeze Jazz, tell the whole neighborhood why don’t ya?” he hissed as he passed.

“Mom and Dad aren’t here, and you’re welcome.”

“Obviously. Jerk.” he made an exaggerated frown at her before ducking into the washer, dragging out handfuls of the expected tee-shirts and jeans followed by an impressive amount of mismatched lightly glowing gloves.

“You’re taking trophies now?” she raised an eyebrow, unsure what to make of it. Not a single one had a pair, and none of them were even his ghost form’s hazmat gloves. Quite a few of them looked rather elaborate, some very interesting embroidered patterns making it obviously not something of her brother’s making. Delicacy was not his strong suit.

“Huh? No! These are-” he paused, taking a breath as he covered the glowing handwear with several shirts. “You remember that whole Sam got dragged to the ghost zone because Aragon’s an idiot thing?”

“The self important dragon shapeshifter with some serious hangups and anger issues?”

“Yeah, that one.” he nodded, rubbing at his chin. “Did I mention Dora sort of knighted us for helping drive him out of power?”

“No, but I’m pretty used to you leaving out important details by now.” Jazz smirked as her little brother rolled his eyes.

“It was nice of her and all but apparently they have a sort of tradition in her Kingdom? Where to show you’re worthy of joining the Queen’s guard you challenge one of the newest knights to a duel.” Danny paused to fish out one of the gloves. “Giving over a glove is basically how they ask for that duel. All very formal, I’d write it down if I could explain how I know without completely blowing my cover.”

“So you’ve got a bunch of medieval ghosts throwing gloves at you and wanting to duel...and you decided to wash them. At home.” Jazz crossed her arms. “Seriously?’

“Where else was I gonna do it? I thought they’d make decent proof so show Dad ghosts have society and rules.” He paused, throwing the glowing thing back under his regular clothes. “Then I remembered there’s no way I could explain how I got these. So now they’ll just smell nice in Sam’s closet or something.”

“Your closet a little too risky this time?”

“Nope. All of these belong to Sam. She’s the one getting all the challenges, not me.” he glanced down at his basket. “I think she named some of these.”

“Isn't it a little unfair for a ghost to fight a human? That goes against the whole honourable and fair thing it seems to be going for.”

The half ghost grinned. “That’s what they think! Challenged gets to set the rules, and it turns out ghost knights are really, really bad at adjusting to ground only combat.”

Jazz blinked, the part that had been bothering her clicking into place. “Wait, so there’s that many because you’re still the newest knights?”

“Wasted every single challenger. I keep trying to convince them they’ll have a better shot against me, but noooo, they insist on trying to best the ‘breathing banshee’.” he shrugs. “Most of em would absolutely wreck me in a proper fight, I don’t usually need to fight ‘fair’ or anything.”

“So why don’t they go after Tucker? Getting all the way out here for a tradition can’t be easy.”

“He still insists he’s Friar Tuck. You don’t swordfight the clergy. None of them have actually called him on it, so maybe he is?” his brow furrowed, thinking on that. “Maybe I should ask Dora that sometime. Find out if we need to worry about some ghost pope later. Would not want to be the guy who punched the dragon queen’s ghost pope.”

Jazz couldn’t suppress a snort, easily able to picture such a mishap. “A year ago if you said that I’d say you should be committed. Now I’m just nodding along.”

“Even if you were saying it now, I’d get out.” A wicked grin accompanied a flash of green eyes.

“Very funny, dork.” Still, the idea was worth thinking about. “Well I can see why you wanted to try using them as proof.” The project was rather important to Danny, seeing as it was his best shot to get their parents to re-evaluate their ‘ghosts are mindless’ stance. “Maybe you could get Tucker to film a fight? Sam keeping ‘contaminated’ gloves wouldn’t seem that weird, and the variety can prove it’s not just one ghost mindlessly repeating the same behaviour.”

“I’d still be stuck explaining how Sam became ‘Sir Manson’ in the ghost zone. Which seems like a disaster waiting to happen.” his shoulders sagged. “They’ll think I made it up or Tucker did some video editing.”

“I still think it’s worth trying. Sam’s got a rich family, you could probably think up an excuse that she’s practically ‘royalty’ and that’s why they come.”

“Eh. Maybe. Don’t tell Sam but I’m giving the challengers tips now. The sooner they stop coming, the sooner I can stop getting all antsy about a ghost attack where I find out it’s another steel welding glove thrower.”

Jazz set her shoulders, determined to get some of that humour back in her dispirited sibling. “Use that. They owe you if you help them out, don’t they?”

“Well, I guess they do. Like I’ve had them tell me stories about what it’s like for them, if they remember stuff or have always been ghosts, they’re pretty chatty to a ‘fellow of the sword’...but it’s all stuff I write down. I can’t prove a ghost told me. I can’t film it, or have Dad listen in. The second they call me ‘Sir Phantom’ I’m toast.”

“He said he’d at least listen to what you found, right? It can be a starting point, and if you have some really specific detail it’s less likely that you made the whole thing up.” she stopped to ruffle his hair. “That, and if you were going to make something up, you’d have some star ghosts or ecto-aliens.”

“I would not!”

“Yes you would. And you’d draw them little space ships and everything.”

“...Okay maybe I’d make up some ships.”

“A lot of ships. With long complicated names. With scientific reasons for those names. Cus your my dorky little brother.”

“Well you’re my nagging big sister. You get to be the black hole equivalent.” 

“Just don’t give up on the idea so quickly, okay? It’s a good one, and it really can’t hurt too much to try.”

A small smile returned as he elbowed her “Careful, or they’ll think you’re being influenced by ghosts too.”

“It’s not like their theories can have any more concrete proof than yours does. What are they?”

“Dad thinks ectoplasm naturally ‘homes in’ on stuff over here, and that’s how they’re finding the portal.” he closes his eyes, foot kicking at the floor. “He’s got this box thing? A lot of box things with different kinds of ectoplasm to see if they move towards ‘our world’ over time. I keep forgetting it’s floating right next to the portal and almost kick it.” his face turns into a grimace. “Dad thinks ‘that ghost kid’ is messing with his experiment on purpose now, so that sucks.”

“Well you could mess with it on purpose, that would be intelligent.”

“Nope. That would be the ‘natural aggressive action’ towards human materials. Tried it.”

“What’s mom’s hypothesis then?”

“That the portal always being here makes this part of Earth more ectoplasm rich so they’re drawn to enter here instead.” he waves a hand. “She’s half right? I don’t think strong ghosts can go all that long without ducking back home to recharge. She’s using the frequency of ‘higher level’ ghosts as proof that they ‘need’ a certain level to function outside of the ghost zone.”

“Another theory you’re accidentally stomping all over.”

“Since they almost never spot ‘Phantom’ going back to the Zone, yeah. I apparently account for ninety four percent of all ghost sightings. Yet only three percent of that is being spotted outside of a fight. Which sounds really bad! No wonder they think I only think about fighting other ghosts.” he rubbed at the back of his head. “I think she plans to test that by uh. Sticking a ghost in a place with no ectoplasm to see how long they hold out, if at all. So I’ve kinda been...making sure she can’t do that.” he swallows, his glance towards his sister more timid than anything. “It'd be a really, really nasty way to die. From what I heard.”

“Good for you. She’ll thank you once you prove that sort of thing would be unethical.”

His frown didn’t move. “If I prove it. So far I’ve just proven they really don’t like that ghost kid.”

“From what I’ve heard you’re the one with the most solid proof. Once you’ve shown everything you’ve collected, then you could try convincing them to see for themselves you aren’t making it up.” Jazz urged, not wanting to watch her little brother give up again.

“Even if I could convince Dad to come in the specter speeder with me we’d scare most ghosts off. The ones we don’t might want to beat me up, or not use a name I can’t explain away.”

“Sam gets to set when one of those challenges happens right? Invite him to one of those.”

He blinked. “...I guess that might work. If Sam made it clear that they couldn’t say my name under any circumstances. There’s one lady who keeps coming, insists she’s going to be the one to get to succeed after ‘Slapping Sir Manson with her glove’, she might be down for that…” he caught the weird look Jazz was giving him. “Oh. Apparently if you’re rivals hitting the person with your glove is ‘provoking your betters’ into a fight? So it’s a respect thing? I don’t really get it. Sam thinks it’s great, which I didn’t see coming but I didn’t think we’d still be having ghost knight fights either.” he let out a breath. “I’m rambling again.”

“You know, if Mom and Dad could see how you talk about this stuff they’d know you aren’t making it up. Looks like ghost research does run in the family.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I’m a ghost hunter if anything. It’s just nice being able to chat instead of fight sometimes. The ghost zone is pretty neat. If you know, half the stuff in there wasn’t trying to skin me alive.”

“I still think you have a good shot. You know it’s true, so they’ll have to see it given enough time.”

“Maybe. Can’t really talk about this stuff to them though. Gee dad, how do I know about Frostbite? Well when I stole the Ecto-Skeleton and shoved back Pariah Dark this whole tribe of yetis decided I was their Great One. So now we’re pals. Oh what’s that dad, you say the ghost kid did that? Funny thing!” he dropped his arms with a scowl. “That’d go over like a lead balloon.”

“Maybe stick to the dragon queen society for now. It’s not like anyone over here saw that. Then you can expand into the rest of the friendly areas.” she put a hand on his shoulder. “One step at a time Danny, you’ll get there.”

“I hope so. If it doesn’t, I blame you if I’m torn molecule by molecule.”

“Ew Danny! Don’t be so morbid, it’s not good for your development.”

“Is it morbid if I’m dead?” he winced from his sister’s whack to the head. “Ow! Half!”

“Better. Now scram with all those gloves before someone thinks you robbed a ghost antique boutique.”

“You’re such a busybody Jazz.” the half ghost teased before darting off with his half spectral laundry. It wouldn’t be an easy thing to convince their parents, but he did seem to be on the right track. So of course it was her job to make sure he stuck to it. Siblings had to look out for each other, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
